Self Publishing And Being An Indie Author

Going beyond self-publishing to becoming

an Indie Author

www.TheCreativePenn.com

Writing for the sake of writing is fantastic!

Self-publishing that work can be absolutely brilliant as a personal project e.g. photobooks/ personal

memoir for family/ limited audience / school

project

We’re talking about:

* publishing professionally * publishing globally * being read and selling books * running a small business and making good money!

Going beyond self-publishing to being an independent author

http://jackiecollins.com/jackies-blog/on-my-decision-to-self-publish/

Self-publishing is now mainstream and a

positive choice for many

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23682885

Indie authors are now mainstream

BBC World News 22 August 2013

Sky News Jan 6 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/books/self-publishing

* Quicker time to market. For sale 24 hours after upload to Amazon, paid 60 days after the end of the month. !* Higher royalties but it’s not a get-rich-quick scheme & sales could be lower. 70 - 85% indie vs ~15% trad !* Total creative control over content & design. Doesn’t have to be a ‘commercial’ prospect !* Sell by any means, in any global market as you retain the rights !* Niche markets perfect as you can price higher !* Get into the game! Test the market and then approach a publisher with evidence of sales. Jump the slush-pile to agents & publishers

Independent/ Self-Publishing

* There’s less prestige than being traditionally published, but the stigma is lessening every day and readers & media generally don’t care !* You need to do it all yourself, or find suitable professionals to help !* You need to run all aspects of the business: writing, publishing & marketing

* For a professional result, you need a budget upfront

* It’s hard to get distribution into physical bookshops if that is a goal !!

Independent/ Self-Publishing

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With more people shopping online, or on their Kindles/ mobile devices, readers don’t care or know who publishes the book.

You’re a new author competing with other new authors. You’re reaching

readers. Where’s the stigma?

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Hugh Howey: Sold print rights only to

Simon & Schuster. Film rights optioned by

Ridley Scott. ‘Dust’ debuted in NY Times

bestsellers

Self-publishing doesn’t kill your chances of a traditional deal. In fact, these days it can be a faster route than

the slush pile!

Kerry Wilkinson has a 14 book deal based on

his self-publishing success of

Jessica Daniel crime series

Nick Spalding sold 400,000 self-published ebooks

before signing deals with

Coronet in UK & Amazon in the US

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Hybrid Model. It’s not an either-or choice anymore!!

* Decide PER PROJECT which might be the best route for your

book. Empowerment of the author as the centre of the

model. !

* A third of traditionally published authors are interested in self-

publishing their next book, according to a new survey from Digital Book World and Writer’s

Digest.

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/07/30/literary-agent/http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/04/26/traditional-self-publishing-not-mutually-exclusive/

Handout & fantastic blog for learning about the industry.

It’s up to you how much publishing work you do

http://janefriedman.com/2013/11/19/infographic-key-book-publishing-paths/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2014/01/07/know-your-rights/

The magic of publishing

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* Creative expression. !

* Empowerment of the author. !

* A viable income through global technologies. !

* Connection with an audience. !

What are you waiting for?

Self-Publishing ...

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Free 87 page ebook on !

self-publishing and book marketing

www.TheCreativePenn.com/blueprint/